My Story

Marcus Donner has been a professional photographer for 35 years. While his rich and varied visual storytelling career has included photographing everything from presidents to fire breathers, he now focuses exclusively on photographing wildlife.

It all started when Marcus was 13 years old and fell in love with photography while working on his eighth-grade yearbook. He grew up in Bellevue, Washington at a time when blue-collar folks like his German-American father who worked as a carpenter and his Mexican-American mother who worked as a housecleaner, could afford to live there. Since his parents didn’t have money to spare, Marcus worked at part-time jobs after school to buy his first camera—a Nikon EM—at age 16 from a local pawnshop.

Years later, Marcus graduated top of his class in Photojournalism from the University of Missouri Journalism School. He went on to work as Director of Photography for the King County Journal newspapers, as a staff photographer at the Puget Sound Business Journal, and as a freelance photographer for organizations such as AP, Reuters, and Greenpeace. He’s twice received a national feature photography award from the Society of Professional Journalists and even achieved his dream of working as a Photo Manager at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

In 2020, Marcus’s career took a major turn. During the COVID-19 lockdown, Marcus pivoted away from taking photos of humans and human-centered events to capturing the beauty of birds, insects, and animals. The global pandemic forced Marcus to discover the natural world that was just outside his townhouse window, helping him realize he didn’t need to travel far to photograph wildlife, he could do it right from his favorite city of Seattle. Whether it’s photographing a Snowy Owl on a rooftop, Great Blue Herons in a city park, a Coyote in a cemetery, or Harbor Seals in urban waterways, amazing photos of wildlife could be created right where he lived.

When he’s not wandering around with his camera or hanging out with his wife Peg, Marcus teaches photography at Woodland Park Zoo and volunteers with urban wildlife projects. He serves on the Seattle Urban Carnivore Project, a joint project of the Woodland Park Zoo and Seattle University studying how carnivores coexist in urban and suburban environments; with the Birds Connect Seattle Bird Collision Monitoring Project to understand and prevent bird-window collisions; and as a Board Member of Friends of Discovery Park, Seattle’s largest wildlife sanctuary. Marcus is also the author of City Critters, Iceland: Travel Photography for Everyone, and Noodle Taco.

 

National Award Winner

 

“I especially appreciated the details of color, lighting, clarity, and composition of pasta maker Martha Francis rolling plin... Donner had to be very patient...in order for him to capture these wonderful photographs, which added significance to the food story.”
     — SDX Awards judges

 

I’ve twice received a national journalism award from the Society of Professional Journalists for feature photography in a non-daily publication. In 2009, I received a Sigma Delta Chi award for a photo feature on Tod Leiweke, CEO of Vulcan Sports & Entertainment, who manages both the Seattle Sounders FC and Seattle Seahawks. In 2012, I received the award again for a feature story of renowned chef and restaurateur, Tom Douglas, and his team. Both stories were shot for the Puget Sound Business Journal.

Plaid Frog Press

I teamed up with with my wife, author Peg Cheng., to create Plaid Frog Press, a Taiwanese-Mexican-German-American-owned publishing company based in Seattle, Washington.

Our company is named after our pal Froggy (who's also our CFO: Chief Frog Officer) and our mottos are READ GOOD STUFF and WRITE GOOD STUFF.

We create our books, zines, cards, and stickers in our home studio in Seattle. We love all the various parts of the publishing process from creating the product, designing it, printing it, and shipping it with the help of great companies like Mixam in Illinois, Sticker Mule in New York, and EcoEnclose in Colorado. All of our stuff is printed in the USA and shipped to you with love in eco-friendly, recyclable materials.

Read my latest books City Critters, Wildlife Photography In Your Own Backyard and Noodle Taco A Taiwanese-Mexican-American Culinary Adventure at Plaid Frog Press.

 

My Favorite Photo

Sometimes the best tool you have in your camera bag is patience.

I waited 20 years to take a single photo on July 25, 2016.

Really, I did.

But this was not just any photo; I was waiting to recreate a photo of my great-grandfather Fred Donner. To do it, I needed at least 15 cantaloupes, a pair of overalls, and a good hat.

Many years back, I was looking through old family photos at my folks’ house and came across a photo of my great-grandfather on his farm packing cantaloupes with a farmhand. My great-grandfather was a melon farmer and farmed up and down California over the years.

I love so many things about this photo. I love the hats my great-grandfather and the farmhand are wearing. I love that it’s a slice of my great grandfather’s work day. Most of all, I love that he’s doing what he loved to do.

And, I know exactly what day the photo was taken. We all have old family photos that we have to guess when they were taken, but for this one photo, I know exactly when it was taken. Painted on the front of the photo is “Irwin, CAL July 25 1916 Packing cantaloupes.” Bingo!

Looking at the photo, I had this idea to shoot a recreation of the photo 100 years apart--with me and my Dad.

There is a lot of craft, composition, lighting, and tools I use to make great photos. But to make this one, I had to use patience--about 20 years worth.

After years of waiting, I finally got the chance to take my recreation photo last summer. It was a hoot and a half, but sadly, I’m the only one wearing overalls. My Dad hates them.

P.S. My great-grandfather Fred Donner hybrided one of the first watermelons that would fit in an icebox.

 

Clients include